Just after midnight, CHP officer Sean Harrington stopped an unnamed 33 y/o woman for making an unsafe lane change. The woman failed field sobriety tests and was detained on suspicion of DUI, having displayed a BAC .29 (which is more than three times the legal limit).
The night ended for this lady with receipt of a notice to appear in court for DUI and her release from the booking facility (* note that CA permits arrest and release, unlike FL which has a mandatory jail booking and a minimum 8 hour hold for any DUI charge), but her DUI case has since been dismissed due to an investigation that she had commenced into her arresting officer’s actions during their encounter.
Shortly after her release the woman discovered that 6 racy photos of her had been forwarded from her cell phone to another cell phone during the course of her DUI processing. Her discovery was all the more nefarious as the records of the forwarded pics had been deleted from her phone, but, fortunately for her they had also been recorded on her iPad, which had been synced to the phone. A review of the iPad records confirmed the pics that were forwarded, as well as the time and the number top which they were sent, which turned out to belong to no one other than, yup, Officer Harrington.
A search warrant was served for Officer Harrington’s phone records and the same showed that he had forwarded the 6 pics in question to at least 2 of his law enforcement colleagues, along with a little color commentary of his own:
Memo to Officer Harrington (and LEO’s everywhere): When you are out with your buddies on your own time feel free to be as boyish / juvenile as you like (although you should always bear in mind that you are a cop, and that duty / responsibility / honor is bestowed upon you 24/7…); but when you are on duty it must be all business all the time. This does not mean that you have to be a dick (a CHP with a chip on his shoulder) about things, but it does require you to comport your on-duty behavior to the highest standards of professionalism, and this is anything but that.
If it’s not bad enough that you invaded this woman’s privacy, and that you effectively stole her property, and that you then published the same, you freaking destroyed evidence in an effort to cover your tracks. If one of your arrestees did this you would be stacking on the charges, one a top the next, and you can expect the grand jury to do the same in your case. If I were you I would lawyer up, and I’d do it big.
In Florida you would have committed at least 2 felonies (a violation of the Computer Crimes Act and Tampering with Evidence) but a creative charging prosecutor might contemplate even more charges (potential theft or burglary charges, obstruction, police misconduct, etcetera) just to set an example. And, not withstanding my status as a defense attorney, frankly, you should be made can example of, if for no other reason than to deter other cops from acting as assclownly as you.
Although clearly we will not always do so, we are all bound to abide by the law; but cops, prosecutors, judges and politicians should be held to a higher standard than “civilians”.
For more than 23 years Michael A. Haber, P.A. has been providing creative, effective and zealous advocacy and counsel in cases ranging from DUI to drug trafficking and from misdemeanors to first degree murder.
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Top notch, very skilled, and highly attentive. Mr. Haber is a fantastic criminal defense attorney. 
- Thanks again. You are second to none when it comes to defending your clients. For that, I thank you
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